The Great FAN poster competition. Please vote!

Before we get to the Poster competition (and you won’t be disappointed) here is an update on our annual fundraiser.

The Final Day

We have just one day to go in our quest to achieve our ambitious goal of raising $150,000 from 1000 donors by midnight Dec 31 (PT).

Yesterday thanks to 50 very generous donations our total shot up by $6,641 to reach the current grand total of $130,008 from 701 donors.

That leaves us just about 17 hours to raise $19,992 and attempt to reach another 299 donors. Both are very tall orders but today we are getting some fantastic help from two of our super angels. They will match the next $9,806 dollar for dollar.

This means every dollar will be doubled until we reach $149,620. In other words, we will be doubled almost the whole way to our goal! So our task today is to raise another $10,000 from supporters like you – we are tantalizingly close to our impossible goal!

Whatever happens, it will certainly be the largest total we have ever raised. Last year at midnight Dec 31 we had raised $127,224 from 728 donors. That was a record and we were thrilled.

Whatever final totals we reach this year Ellen, Stuart and I would like to thank each and every one of you for donating – and for everything else you are doing to end this nightmare of a practice (not forgetting our graphic artists – wait till you see those poster designs!).

When a team becomes a family

It is difficult to explain what an emotional experience this has become for us each year. Many of you have become our friends – albeit scattered around the globe –some we have met many times, others never at all.

Hour after hour we stare at our laptop screens, willing another name to appear. Whenever a familiar name pops up it gives us a little thrill – especially when the same names pop up year after year. This is when a team becomes a family. Doing something for a group of people you have grown to like and love means more to us than anything else. We are so privileged to work with you and even more so when we get to meet you in person.

We are going to so enjoy winning this battle a) because it is right and just that we do so and b) it is going to be one of the most lovely virtual parties we will ever attend!

Aliss Terpstra from Toronto summed up our feelings very well when she answered the question What does FAN mean to you? with these words:

It means integrity, perseverance, creativity, dedication, statesmanship, ethical science, environmental responsibility and joyful FUN with the most supportive, lively, intelligent, fundamentally decent and caring community of good people I have ever encountered.

The Great FAN Poster Competition

What a creative bunch of people we have among our supporters. As you may remember Ellen asked for people to submit posters to our poster competition. We have had some wonderfully creative entries. Individually they are great; collectively they are stupendous. We will be up against a wall of money in 2015 and art and creativity like this is what will steer us through.

Please choose your top three in order and send your selection to Ellen@FluorideAlert.org by midnight EST Jan 4. Please consider how FAN can best deploy these posters and/or billboards.

Another victory to celebrate

And just when we thought things couldn’t get any better, news has just come in of another victory in Pennsylvania:

On December 29, the town council of Ford City (fluoridated since 1951) voted 5-0 to stop adding fluoride to its drinking water when its water plant being built next year goes into service. “This is a matter of removing a poison,” said Borough Manager Eden Ratliff. “And it’s about the government not forcibly medicating our population.”…

Back to the fundraiser one last time

If you would like to help, here’s how to make your tax-deductible donation.

Here’s how to make your tax-deductible donation. It is simple, quick, and crucial.

Deadline for Signing on to EPA/HHS Email

Don’t forget, the deadline for signing on to Attorney Gerald Steel’s email to HHS Secretary Burwell and EPA Administrator McCarthy asking them to reach a joint position regarding federal fluoridation juridiction is January 4, 2015 at 9 PM PT (12 PM ET). Click here to read the text of the email, click here to sign-on, and click here for more information about the campaign.